Jane Villanueva
Jane Gloriana Villanueva is the title character of the CW dramedy Jane the Virgin. She is portrayed by Gina Rodriguez. Character Jane is a bright, passionate young woman, who dreams of becoming a writer. She grew up with her very young mother and abuela and loves her family deeply. Jane's grandparents are immigrants from Venezuela and were not in touch with their family back home, so Jane wishes for her son, Mateo, that he grow up with a big, extended family, as Jane sometimes felt lonely growing up. Jane is a romantic, who daydreams of telenovela romances and finding her true love. Conversely, she likes to plan her life, sometimes down to the last detail and is scared of losing control and taking risks in her life, which sometimes stops her from following her heart. Family Mateo Mateo is Jane's blessing in many, many ways. He was not a planned child for Jane (as Jane likes to plan her life in strict detail), he is her miracle and his entire existence, from the beginning, has given Jane courage to risk her heart, to test herself, explore and experience life. Mateo's life is Jane's first foray away from her safety net, into a world of adventures – everything she could only dream of and loves writing about. Alba Alba is Jane's grandmother. It was Alba who first instilled in Jane the idea of staying a virgin until her wedding night, saying a virginity lost was like a smashed flower: it can never go back to what it once was. Alba found Jane's prescription and was hurt by the idea that her granddaughter had broken her vow; when Jane told her she was accidentally inseminated, Alba revealed to her that she ordered Xiomara to have an abortion and later regretted it, for Jane is the most important person in her life. She also adds that the baby will be the most important person in Jane's life. Alba is a very religious woman; the narrator says Alba's passions in life are "God and Jane, exactly in this order". For Alba, there's nothing that Jane could do that she couldn't forgive her for. Xiomara Xiomara is Jane's mother. She got pregnant and gave birth to Jane when she was sixteen. She was the one to decide she wanted to keep the baby and lied to her mother about her baby daddy's identity to protect him; for the same reasons, Xo never told Jane who her father was. She was with Jane when Jane found out she was pregnant and thought Jane was the Immaculata. Xiomara later tells Jane she can choose not to have the baby; saying it helps to have options. Jane knows her mother loves her, but she knows Xiomara's pregnancy with her has derailed Xo's life in several ways and doesn't want a child of hers to feel the same thing. Xiomara and Jane share a loving, close and supportive relationship. Xiomara often would break up with boyfriends in order to protect Jane from them; Jane, however, points out that doing that meant Xiomara used her as protection to keep herself from being hurt. Rogelio Then-sixteen-year-old Xiomara's boyfriend and Jane's father. When Xiomara told Rogelio she was pregnant with his baby, he told her to have an abortion and then walked out on her when she refused. He then went on to become a famous telenovela actor (Jane watches his telenovela, "The Passions of Santos", with her mother and her abuela). When Xiomara first saw him on screen, sixteen months before "Chapter One", she wrote to him; he took sixteen months to find her and is angry with her for having kept Jane a secret for 23 years. It was after meeting her father that Jane have decided to keep her baby. Rogelio often struggles with making a connection with Jane: over dramatic and over the top, he's a fan of grandiose gestures of affection, a trait that doesn't sit well with Jane. In order to help Jane, Rogelio gets her a position within the writing team of his telenovela, The Passions of Santos. The head writer, Dina Milagros, then gives Jane the task of writing Rogelio's character Santos' death scene. Jane at first balks at that, but Rogelio convinces her to do that and write him the greatest death scene ever. She eventually agrees and breaks down in tears as she watches the taping of said scene. Afterwards, they hug, and Jane calls him dad for the first time, thrilling Rogelio. Rogelio offers his support when Jane has to do some tests on the baby, and she's grateful for his presence. Romances The Love Triangle Jane, Rafael and Michael is a love triangle that was first seen in Season 1, Chapter Two. Jane first met Michael at her 21st birthday party when someone call in a noise complaint, where Jane thinking that he was an male stripper. Jane first met Rafael the summer of 2010 where she worked as a waitress at the Golden Harbor Yacht Club. Jane had a crush on him all summer and one day, after closing time, they finally spent some time together and kissed. Jane was over the moon about Rafael, but at the time he was a playboy and never called her. Michael Michael is Jane's boyfriend of two years. They haven't had sex yet because of her vow to remain a virgin until she marries, and Michael is very understanding of that, not pressuring Jane into sleeping with him. Michael works as a detective and is involved on the investigation about the shady side business going on at the hotel where Jane works. He proposes to Jane, but she then tells him she's pregnant, making the timing of the proposal really wrong. Michael later tells Jane he wants to be supportive of her decision; however, he'd be lying for he doesn't want her to have the baby. They finally get engaged when Jane goes to the station house where he works and proposes to her. However, with Jane growing closer and closer to Rafael, Michael openly displays jealousy and insecurity in his relationship with her. When Jane finds out Michael knew Petra was cheating on Rafael and didn't tell her, even though he knew she thought Petra and Rafael's marriage was rock-solid and perfect, leaving her relieved that her baby would be in a very good family, she breaks the engagement off. After the breakup, Jane enters into a relationship with Rafael and shows signs of having moved on from her relationship with Michael. He, however, still loves her and believes they're meant to be. They remain somewhat friendly; however, Michael's insistence that Rafael is involved with Sin Rostro leaves Jane irritated with him, for she believes he's obsessing over Rafael supposedly being a criminal in order to break them up and have a chance to win her back. But, in some episodes it's shown that even though they are broken up, they are still close. Jane was trying to decide between Micheal and Rafael. Jane and Micheal share a magical kiss but everything ends when Micheal push Rafael onto a glass table and a piece cuts Mateo injuring his arm and making run away and Jane says hes too dangerous to be around Mateo. Rafael Rafael was Jane's teenage crush. They met while she was working at a yacht club restaurant and allowed him in after hours. They talked and then Rafael gave Jane her first kiss. When they meet again, in Rafael's hotel (where Jane works), Rafael feels Jane looks familiar; she tries to dismiss it at first, but then he asks if they met at a strip club, which makes Jane mad. When it's revealed that Jane's pregnant via insemination with Rafael's sample, he tells her that he and Petra want the baby, but Jane seriously considers terminating the pregnancy. However, after she decides to keep the baby and give it to Rafael and Petra after it's born, Jane and Rafael grow closer, making Michael jealous. Rafael has been married to Petra for nearly five years, but wants to divorce her, for he feels they're too different and bring out 'the ugly side' of each other. While at first Rafael tells Jane he sees her as a sister, he grows attracted to her, even having sexual dreams about her. They kiss after Jane ends her engagement to Michael, but soon she grows conflicted about starting a relationship with him so soon after her breakup; eventually, he convinces her to take things slow so they can get to know each other better. They hit their first snag when Jane reveals she's actually a virgin and plans on remaining so until she marries; the next day, Jane walks in on him supposedly in bed with another woman. He finds her at a nightclub, and they talk it out and decide to take it slow. Jane and Rafael seem to have a loving and supportive relationship; she really wants it to work with him, and he supports and takes care of her. Being jaded, Rafael often tells Jane she's being naive, but that's something he likes about her. When Jane goes through a test to see if there's any abnormality with the baby, Rafael tries to keep her calm and be supportive of her. Jane tries to choose between Rafael and Micheal Jane and Micheal have a magical kiss and Rafael hears over the baby monitar. When Jane comes to see if he heard he pretends he's asleep and turns off the monitar. Rafael tries to prevent Jane from picking Micheal cause Rafael made a mistake dumping her. But she does tell him that shes choosing Micheal . Later Micheal injures Mateo when hes trying to injure Rafael for ratting him out and Jane leaves him and grows close to Rafael . After a couple months shes over Michael and Rafael and Jane go on their first real date. Friends Lina Lina is Jane's best friend. They go way back and they were good friends for a lot of years. Lina has always been there for Jane and Jane for Lina. When Lina find out about Jane's situation she helped her to get through it. They once had a fight, because Jane forgot to ask Rafael whether Lina is fired. That's why Lina rolled her eyes at Jane and she said that she doesn't have to care if she's getting fired, because she has a rich daddy and a rich baby daddy. But after that argument, they became friends again and Lina decided to plan a baby shower for Jane. Petra Petra seems to honestly like Jane. She's the one who Jane calls to tell Rafael she's not terminating the pregnancy and instead giving the baby to the Solanos to raise. In Chapter Three, Jane grows suspicious of Petra when she sees her lurking outside of the Zaz's murder scene and after seeing her pop a mysterious pill. Since they're already scheduled to have coffee together in order to know each other better, Jane sneaks in Petra's suite to further investigate the issue. When Petra catches her in the act, she's surprisingly understanding of Jane's need to check up on the people to whom she's giving the baby. She then shows Jane the room she has chosen as the baby's nursery, and an emotional Jane tells her it's beautiful. Petra tried to use the baby as leverage to keep Rafael from divorcing her, recalling Jane's desire to see the baby raised in a family with two parents. The two women find themselves against each other when Petra, desperate to force Rafael into giving her more money, tries to make a play on the baby's custody. She invades Jane's appointment with the doctor and insinuates she'll go to court to have the baby, since she's still married to Rafael and they allegedly draw up a contract about using a surrogate to have a baby (Jane supposedly was the surrogate). However, when a PI hired by Rafael finds out Petra isn't who she claimed to be, Petra backed off and left them alone. Jane comforts Petra after walking in on her crying due to Milos returning and telling Petra her mother's not who Petra believes she is. Petra at first rebuffs Jane's attempts to comfort her, but eventually gives in and tells Jane everything about her life so far. Background 2001 Jane was born to a young girl, Xiomara Villanueva, when the latter was 16. In order to protect the baby's father, Xiomara lied to her mother, Alba, when she asked who had gotten her pregnant and told her she didn't know who he was. She repeated that lie to Jane until Jane's adulthood, when Jane then found out the truth about her father. When Jane was ten, Alba, her grandmother, introduced her to the fascinating world of telenovelas. She also taught Jane that her virginity was like a crushed flower: once done, you can't go back. Influenced by her grandmother, Jane then promised she would keep her virginity intact until her wedding night. As a little girl, Jane used to play make believe with her mom and pretend she was getting married. She would be the bride, and Xiomara would be the groom. Still, no matter how much she loved her mother, Jane still felt curious about her father and wanted him to be a part of it. As a child, Jane was the adult in the relationship with her mother, taking care of her, reminding her to be careful when out on dates and playing peacemaker between Xiomara and Alba whenever they fought. It was from an early age that Jane's talent for writing appeared, and she wrote her first short story when she was ten, discovering a magical new world. Jane has always been a dedicated student, her lowest score being 98% on an spelling test – but only because she had used the British spelling of a word, a cause she would argue on the following day. It was then that she learned from Alba to forgive, after an incident where she broke Alba's favorite earrings after using them without her permission. Alba then told her that, as her flesh and blood, there's nothing Jane can do that Alba wouldn't forgive. And, like every other child, Jane was terrified of needles. 2006 In 2006, Jane had a quinceañera. Jane couldn't wait for her quinceañera and she even wrote a list of things to do on her party. She danced with a beautiful boy who she thought was great. But she was wrong. When Xiomara saw her date kissing another girl she grabbed mic and started singing. Although embarrassed, Jane acted as if it didn't bother her and continued on with the party. Sometime in high school, Xiomara started dating the father of Stephanie, one of Jane's classmates. Stephanie was popular and, when Xiomara broke up with her father, she turned everyone against Jane. Jane would later give this as the reason why she wanted to teach middle schoolers, so she could stop them from becoming mean girls. At age 15 Jane didn't like to listen her grandmother and mother fight so she would always write a letter to Alba in Xiomara's name when they got into a huge fight, apologizing and asking Alba never to mention the fight again. 2010 Jane was nearly nineteen when she kissed Rafael. She worked at a tennis bar's restaurant when they met: she was closing the bar when he arrived late, but he sweet-talked her into letting him in after hours. There was a spark between them when they first met. They talked for hours and he promised he would call her again, but he never did, and Jane was heartbroken. When Jane was nineteen she graduated high school and she was celebrating. She already had all the plans for her future and she attempted to make them happen. Jane told Alba and Xiomara that when's she's thirty she sees herself happy, with her first novel published and married with no kids yet. 2012 Jane and Michael meet at her 21st birthday party. Quotes :Jane: But I've never had sex!! :Jane: We have a timeline. I haven't got my teachers degree yet, we just merged our calendars! :Jane: I'm an honors student, Michael! I can cook Trivia *She likes telenovelas. *Her favorite food is grilled cheese. *She has been writing short stories since she was ten. * Jane's dream is to write romance novels. *She used to run when she was a bit younger. *She used to work at Golden Harbor Yacht Club, where Rafael would play tennis. * She drives a Yellow Mini Cooper (a gift from her father). * Jane was in college for six years, while working. * She is Venezuelan-Mexican-American. * She speaks English to her Abuela, who replies in Spanish. * She was subjected to mean girls in high school. * She wrote one scene for The Passions of Santos. * She is best friends with Lina. * She worked as a teacher at Our Lady of Sorrows High School. * She has two stepsisters Valeria and Victoria. * She wrote a short story about her mother. * She originally wished to be a published author by 30Chapter Fourteen. Photos :Jane Villanueva/Gallery Notes and references Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Jane the Virgin Category:Females Category:Mothers